Or more likely the developer torches the old market. This was so brazen in KS years ago that HE was quickly advised to throw up a new one. Its amazing that markets seem to burn down when people are agitating against development. It turns out the the Psaa Jah belonged to the city, does Psaa Kandal belong to the city or is it privately owned?

Wed May 25, 2016 6:34 am

frank lee bent wrote:Looks a real fire hazard to me.
would not be at all surprised to see it burn.

You fortune teller.

Blaze at market prompts concern among vendors
Tue, 24 January 2017
Sen David

At least 14 market stalls were completely destroyed and three other stalls damaged during a fire at Kandal Market in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district early yesterday morning, the chief of the Phnom Penh Fire Department said yesterday.

Chief Prum Yorn said the fire, likely caused by an electrical malfunction, broke out in stall number 49 in Kandal Market at around 4:15am yesterday, spreading through the structure before it was put out by 18 municipal police fire trucks and two military police fire trucks.

“The fire could be from an electric fault. It destroyed 14 stalls and damaged three. Luckily not all stalls were destroyed because our fire trucks came on time and we managed to stop the fire by 5am,” he said.

Rumours began to circulate yesterday that the fire was deliberately started to win support for plans to redevelop the market.

The government had initially proposed redevelopment plans for Kandal Market as early as 2009, but the renovation was scrapped then due to protests.

Pa Socheatvong, Phnom Penh city governor, met with the vendors at Kandal Market yesterday morning, urging them to rebuild their stalls and to support the previously shelved redevelopment plans.
Reached yesterday, Socheatvong said no renovation would take place as long as vendors opposed it, but acknowledged that if it did go ahead, the new rates would be “very high”...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/b ... ng-vendors

life imitates art
who would have guessed?